The Latest: Busch grabs early lead at Richmond Raceway
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Latest on the NASCAR Cup race Saturday night at Richmond Raceway (all times local):
10:50 p.m.
Martin Truex Jr. held off Clint Bowyer in a long duel and then Joey Logano for four laps to win the NASCAR Cuper Series race at Richmond Raceway.
Truex gave Joe Gibbs Racing its sixth victory in nine races this season and won for the first time in his career on tracks shorter than one mile.
Logano held on for second followed by Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and local favorite Denny Hamlin.
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9:20 p.m.
Joey Logano passed Martin Truex Jr. with about five laps to go and won the second stage in the NACAR Cup Series race at Richmond.
Truex had led since the race went back to green on lap 136 following a caution. Leader Kyle Busch was penalized for speeding on pit road and sent back to the 24th position.
Busch, who had led 103 laps, worked his way back up to 15th place by the end of second stage.
The top five to finish the stage were Logano, Truex, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer
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8:30 p.m.
Kyle Busch has won the 100-lap first stage of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.
Busch grabbed the lead from Kevin Harvick after 25 laps. It’s the fifth stage victory of the season for Busch, who is trying for his third straight victory on the 0.75-mile, D-shaped oval.
Joey Logano was second in the stage, followed by Martin Truex Jr., pole-sitter Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer, giving Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing each two cars in the top five positions.
The race is being run under mostly clear skies after rain fell all morning.
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8 p.m.
Kyle Busch has grabbed the lead from Kevin Harvick during the the NASCAR Cup race at Richmond.
NASCAR decided to have a competition caution 40 laps into the race after rain that fell early in the day cleaned rubber off the track.
Busch, seeking his third consecutive victory at Richmond, was followed by Harvick, brother Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Paul Menard when everyone headed to the pits for fresh tires and fuel.
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7:45 p.m.
Kevin Harvick started from the pole in the NASCAR race at Richmond Raceway, but the field was jumbled considerably.
NASCAR says eight cars failed prerace inspection, including three that failed twice. They include local favorite Denny Hamlin, a three-time winner on the 0.75-mile oval, Chase Elliott and Matt Tifft.
As a result, NASCAR disqualified their qualifying speeds, sending them to the rear of the field, disallowed their pit stall selection and ejected one engineer from each team for the race.
Five other teams failed inspection and had their qualifying speeds and pit selection disallowed. They were seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, Aric Almirola, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez and Joey Gase.
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing
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